News

5 Reasons Why Someone Should Like Your Facebook Business Page

Mario Wilson — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 05:50:41 Z

One of my biggest pet peeves is when a person, or a business, just blasts out: Like us on Facebook! or Follow us on Twitter! without explaining the reason why. Humans are selfish beings, so as business owners we need to give people the selfish reason why they should like our page.

For instance, I would like local business owners to like my page on Facebook and follow me on Twitter because Im offering them value, such as tips on how to grow their business through online marketing. They get something of value for themselves, by following me. Thats just my example your reasons may be different! Here are five different reasons you can give people for why they should follow you on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.

1. The first reason is to get tips! Say you own a landscape company. You might say to people, Follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook because were always giving tips on how to have a beautiful, luscious, green yard. I would like that in a heartbeat!

2. The second reason is events. Maybe you have a brick and mortar business and youre hosting an event, with bounce houses, things for kids, etc. You might can tell people, Hey, like us on Facebook so you can keep up with all our fun events!

3. Reason number three someone should like your business page is to keep up with your specials. There are a lot of service businesses that like to give out specials, such as beauty salons or auto repair shops. Specials are a great selfish reason for someone to like your page. Hey, give us a like on Facebook, because were always posting about different monthly specials! Your customers will say, Oh, yeah! Sure, I want to keep up with your specials. Ill go ahead and give you a like!

4. The fourth reason why someone should like your Facebook page or follow you on Twitter is to keep up with special closings, inclement weather, etc. This happens a lot. Were here in Texas where it can go from sunshine to rain to ice in the same week! So one thing we can do is to communicate to our clients whether or not well be open, which might save them some trouble.

This is important for holidays, too. When people follow you they can see by a quick glance if youre going to be open on a holiday or not. Lets face it people dont want to call you to find out if youre going to be open! They want to be able to check their Facebook, or look on Twitter and know if its a good time to pay you a visit, or stay home and save themselves some time and trouble.

5. The last reason I want you to explain why someone should like your Facebook page or follow you on twitter is because of customer service! Tell your current and potential clients: You can follow us, or like us on Facebook, and actually message us if you have a question, or comment. We can reply back to comments right here, and you dont even have to call us! Again its funny, we live in a day and an age where people want to use their smart phones for everything except calling! So give them this avenue to be able to provide customer service to them.

One caution, though: If youre not able to keep up with your social media stream and actually be able to reply back to these comments, do not put that out there as a selling tool for you! If you do have someone monitoring messages and tweets, etc., then yes, go ahead and throw that out there! Hey! Follow us on Twitter, because you can always tweet us with a question or a concern, and well get right back with you! Our clients love that we are able to do this for them so they can focus on running their businesses.

Again, I hope this arms you with enough reasons that when you say Hey, give us a like on Facebook! youll be able to give your customers some concrete reasons why. This way youll grow your pages organically with people who want to like your page, and who are not just giving you the guilty like.

I hope this helps you grow your online presence! Please share this with a business owner who would love to connect with more local residents. As always, please feel free to add your comments below!

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How To Market Your Business When You're On Vacation

Mario Wilson — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 05:59:17 Z

Youre a small business owner, but you want to go on vacation. What do you do with your marketing while youre out of town?

Right now we have two clients who are away on vacation. Theyre having a great time! Because they have us to manage their marketing and social media efforts, theyre not missing anything when it comes to exposure. If someone were to message their page right now and ask them a question or relay some kind of a concern, we are able to reply back to that customer even though the business owners are away having a great time on vacation. The customers never notice that the business owner is away!

Now imagine if our clients did not have us in place. That potential customer just sits there, or that message just sits there, unanswered. Eventually that customer is going to go with someone else because they did not get a timely response. No one is going to wait a week for a business to get back from vacation to respond to their concerns.

Our clients cannot afford to just shut down their marketing for a week because if they do they will lose exposure, and will lose the ability to provide timely customer service. Its important for our clients to not have that down time. They have employees who are relying on them to keep their businesses in the forefront, not only from a marketing perspective, but also from a customer service standpoint. This is why its important that you have a company you can trust to manage your social media and marketing efforts while youre away.

So whether its our company or another company that you trust, make sure you have someone reputable to manage your social media and marketing. Then as a business owner you can actually get out, take a vacation, and your marketing and exposure never skip a beat.

For more social media tips, please join us on Facebook here: Market With Mario

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7 Social Media Post Ideas For Small Businesses

Mario Wilson — Mon, 15 Jun 2015 05:52:41 Z

One of the most popular questions that we get is, "so what should we post?". Many business owners, no matter how knowledgeable they are in their field, have problems coming up with ideas on what to post to their social media accounts. I am here to tell you that this is normal and most owners are so engaged in their businesses that they have SO MUCH content that they can't break it down into small posts. We're here to help! In this article, I will break down the game plan that we take with our clients in coming up with a content strategy, regardless of the industry in which we are posting for.

Here are 7 post types that will help small businesses provide value, gain more exposure, and eventually, more customers.

1. Pictures of product or services: Nothing shows off a business... like showing off a business. Take plenty of pictures of products and services (example of a service pic would be a roofing company taking pictures of a job site). The key is to explain the value of a product or service so it comes off as helpful and not "salesy".

2. Tips: Nothing repels an audience more than a daily sales pitch. On the other hand, nothing attracts followers more than valuable information. Offering tips on social media not only builds trust because you're trying to help solve common problems, but it also will help your business set itself up as the expert.

3. Events: When most people today want all of their friends and family to know about an event, they post it on social media. The same approach can be made for businesses if they have a special event to promote. Platforms like Facebook and Google Plus have special event tabs in which they can be easily created in just a few minutes.

4. Staff: We must remember that people love to do business with people and not logos and brands. Pictures of your team make great social media posts. This pulls the curtain back on your business and allows your audience to get to know the people behind the brand. Also, your staff will love that you show them appreciation (note: be sure to ask them before posting as some do not want their pics on social media).

5. Questions/Fill in the blank: Questions work well on social media because it gets our followers involved, talking and engaging. It makes it a two-way street instead of a one-sided broadcast. Be sure to ask specific questions that your audience would be interested in that only needs one or two words to answer. Ex: A dentist could ask, "Do you brush in circles or back and forth?" It's simple to answer and it makes it fun for the followers. I bet you're thinking about how you brush now haha :)

6: Promotions/new products/services: It's best to always lead with tips and value first, but it is okay to promote your business on social media as well. After all, most of us are for profit businesses. The key is not to do it all of the time. Just every now and then. I suggest promotional posts when you are rolling out a new product or service, or perhaps your seasonal business just came into season.

7. Be social: It is social media so it's okay to a be...social. Make some posts funny or talk about an upcoming event in your local city. When we just talk about our business it becomes boring. Mix in some "social" posts and keep it fresh and up-to-date (current events that aren't political, etc). Bring your brand or business to life!

When we have different types of content we become less predictable and never run out of interesting content to share with our followers. I hope this helps brings some life to your pages and gives you some more ideas on what to post. As always, if you can't find the time to post consistently, we can do it for you. Check out our small business marketing solution here: Small Business Solution

Thanks for reading! Please feel free to share any additional post ideas in the comments!

Why A Social Media Strategy Needs To Be Diversified

Mario Wilson — Fri, 12 Jun 2015 21:49:35 Z

Facebook is great, obviously! Its the 800 pound gorilla in the room when it comes to social media marketing. The whole world seems to be on Facebook! But there is more to social media marketing than Facebook. I know, its hard to believe, isnt it?

I want to share some reasons why its not a good idea to make your whole social media marketing strategy depend on Facebook, and talk about some other things you can do. Its sort of like thinking about an investment portfolio - its always better to diversify, instead of putting all your money into one investment. You dont want to put all of your eggs into the Facebook basket!

Don't have all of your eggs in the Facebook basket

We have our clients use other social media platforms as well. I want to share some advantages of other social media platforms with you.

First, lets talk about Twitter. There are two main reasons I love Twitter. The first is that you can get exposure without having to have someone follow you (the equivalent of liking you on Facebook).

The second is that you can use hashtags on Twitter. The hashtag is just this: #. Its Shift + 3 on your keyboard - you know, we used to call it a pound sign on our old phones. Remember that? Now its a powerful little symbol that we use to mark keywords. So if I use #socialmedia in a tweet, everyone who searches on that hashtag will see my tweet! I will be blended into the conversation, and they will see me whether they follow me or not. For instance, lets say that you are a local business in McKinney. If you use #mckinney in your tweets, anyone who searches on McKinney or clicks on a #mckinney hashtag will see your tweet! And they will see it whether they follow you or not.

Another powerful aspect of Twitter is the search feature. You can use various search terms to find the service you need. For instance if you are running a pest control company, you can search for people using words like termites, bugs, or pest control in their tweets. You can see who is tweeting about those things in real time, in your area! This can put you right where your clients need you, when they need you! Many people wish Facebook operated in real time, but Twitter actually does, making it such a powerful tool!

The Twitter search tool is powerful!

A third platform we have our clients on is Pinterest. Pinterest is great because its all pictures, all visual. Youve heard the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words! Some people are very visual and love to see your photos on Pinterest, where they can easily pin them to their own boards to save your information and ideas. Plus its hard to believe but there are some people who just dont like Facebook. My wife is one of them! My wife is never on Facebook. I could send her a message right now on Facebook telling her that shed just won a million dollars, and shed probably never get that until next week. But shell be on Pinterest tonight, pinning all kinds of things! So this is another area where you can blend in with the conversation and take advantage of it to reach people who are just not Facebook people.

A picture is still worth a thousand words

So you can see - there is much more out there for you to use than just Facebook. The more platforms you use, the more people you will reach, and youre not stuck with all your eggs in one basket. And now that Im finished with this article Im going to upload a video to YouTube - which is yet another platform you can use to reach people!

I hope this helps in developing your social media strategy! For more tips please visit us on Facebook at MarketWithMario.

How Small Businesses Can Compete With Big Businesses

Mario Wilson — Thu, 11 Jun 2015 04:34:27 Z

One of my favorite aspects of social media is that it really levels the playing field. What do I mean by that? No matter who you are a solo entrepreneur, a small business, or a large corporation we all advertise in the same space.

If youre a small business you may not be able to afford radio spots, or a huge billboard in a busy location, or a TV commercial. Think about the Superbowl commercials: theres just no way a solo entrepreneur or small business owner can fit into that space! However, Facebook, Twitter, Google and all the other social media channels allow us to to use the exact same media space as the big businesses, and to really compete at the same level.

Think about this: Everyone walks around with a smartphone, an iPad, of some kind of screen. (Look around you next time youre dining out, or at a stoplight!) People are constantly engaged with their phones and devices, on various social media channels. When small businesses take advantage of this, they can really stay connected with their customers and compete with just about anyone out there. You might not have the big TV commercials, but you have big exposure anyway!

This is why I highly recommend that you are active with your social media. And if you dont have time because youre too busy running your business to manage your social media, let us know! Wed be happy to help you out. Feel free to add your feedback by commenting below. Thanks!

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How To Measure ROI From Online Marketing

Mario Wilson — Tue, 05 May 2015 06:20:20 Z

All right, business owners, I have a challenge for you! I challenge you to stop asking the question, How did you hear about us?

"Why did you choose us?"

You may think Im crazy. How are we supposed to know what marketing efforts are working or arent if we dont ask that? But what if we changed the wording and instead asked, Why did you choose us?

Sometimes, How did you hear about us? does not tell the whole story. Lets say you have a mailer or some kind of print literature. I might get this mailer and notice the Facebook and Twitter icons at the bottom. If I search out your Facebook page and see that it has a lot of good content and its helpful, Ill think Wow, this company is really on the ball! And that may be the deciding factor of me choosing to use your services. But afterwards if I were to fill out a form that asked, How did you hear about us? I would check mailer, when the real reason I chose you was because of content on your Facebook page. Youd never know that from my feedback on your form.

Was it the mailer or Facebook posts? Or both?

Another business might have the opposite scenario. It could be youve been following a brand or company on Facebook for years but never really did business with them. One day you get a mailer or an email that really sparks your interest. You think, Wow, this is really cool, I think Im going to go ahead and take advantage of this offer! Well again, when they ask How did you hear about us? youre going to say you heard about them through the Facebook page. And yes, you did hear about the from Facebook at first, but it was really the mailer that sealed the deal and brought them your business.

So by asking the question, Why did you choose us? you get an idea of how all your marketing efforts come together. Social media is important but it is not the end-all, be-all. Its a complement to your other marketing efforts such as email campaigns, in-person networking, etc. What youre really doing with all of your efforts is building relationships. And if you were to change that one simple question from How did you hear about us? to Why did you choose us? youll get a full understanding of how this relationship-building is working for you, and which of your marketing efforts are really paying off.

If you have any other ways to check ROI from marketing efforts, please add in the comments. Thanks!

How Social Media Content Is Similar To Samples At The Grocery Store

Mario Wilson — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 03:05:35 Z

Free Samples!

Im running a business. So why on earth would I ever give away my product for free? Im sure youve noticed that I do hand out content for free: my blog is full of tips and resources that you can use to manage social media and marketing for your business. Im frequently asked why I do this.

Imagine that its the weekend and youre doing your big grocery shopping trip. You walk in the door and what do you find? Free samples! You try a bite of something you werent sure if you wanted to buy - but then its so good you go back and pick up a box to take home! Grocery stores know that youre much more likely to buy something if you can try a bit of it first.

The truth is, this sampling works for all kinds of businesses, including service-oriented businesses. It sounds like it might not make sense for, say, a landscaping company to give out tips on how to take care of your yard yourself. Don't you want people to call you, instead of taking care of their own landscaping?

In fact those tips give your customers a sample of the work you provide. When you give them information they can use this shows your customers that they can trust you. It shows that you care about the work, and that you know what youre doing. And once customers know they can rely on you for useful tips, they feel confident that you are the one to call when they need more help. Theyve already sampled your product, and come back to you for the whole package!

Think of your content as little snackable samples, and soon youll find that clients have bought the whole service from you.

Please feel free to add to the conversation by commenting below. Thanks for reading!

What A Social Media Manager Actually Does

Mario Wilson — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 02:51:06 Z

I was at a networking meeting last week and someone asked me, "so exactly what is it that you do?". Now keep in mind, this individual and I have been going to this weekly meeting for over a year. As you can imagine, this was alarming to me. Marketing 101: Make sure everyone you come in contact with knows exactly what you do or what your product is immediately. Somehow, I failed to do this. "Social Media Management" is crystal clear in my head, but not to this particular colleague. My initial thought was, "How? How could this be?" Then I transitioned to feeling thankful that he asked me that so that I was aware of the problem. If he had that question, several others must have the same question. I need to dig deeper and explain what a social media manager or management company actually does for a small to medium sized business. Here at Market With Mario, we manage Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube. Here's what "manage" means:

1. Post Daily: We post content daily (Monday-Saturday) to all of the platforms above, excluding YouTube which we create one video per month for. The content varies from a helpful tip, a picture of staff, services or products, an engaging question or posting about a current event. The key is to make sure the content is appropriate and formatted for each platform. For instance, Twitter constricts posts to140 characters and hashtags (#) are welcomed and encouraged. Facebook, on the other hand, allows you to have more characters and most posts do not include hashtags. It's also important to send posts out at the optimum time for each social media platform.

2. Format/edit pictures: One of the duties of managing social media campaigns is editing pictures to make them look great on the different profiles. It's been my experience that pictures taken horizontally on a smartphone camera perform and look best on platforms like Facebook, Google Plus and Twitter. I recommend vertical pictures for Pinterest. Also editing the size of pictures is important. I use a great (free) tool called PicMonkey to edit mine for our clients. Here is a guideline for the correct dimensions for each kind of picture for each platform: How To Size Picture Cheat Sheet

3. Reply to Comments: So someone is scrolling through their newsfeed and actually takes the time to stop and comment on one of our posts..."YES!!!" Now what? Comment back, that's what! One of our duties when managing accounts is monitoring and replying to comments for our clients. This keeps the conversation going and shows that you care. If you never replied back it would discourage the follower from commenting again.

4. Follow Other Pages: I believe in the Golden Rule when it comes to social media: If you want likes, like other pages. If you want followers, follow other pages. If you want people to join your circles (Google Plus terminology) join theirs. One thing that we do for all of our clients is follow and like other pages and accounts of relevance to their business page. Instead of just broadcasting status updates, we are out and about in the community and sharing the love, being "social" and being active. Generally, the etiquette is, if someone likes you or follows you, you follow them back, so this strategy will yield more fans.

5. Listen/Engage: Last, but certainly not least, we listen to conversations and engage. What does that mean? Here's an example. We managed an appliance repair company in the Frisco/Little Elm area in Texas that also sells whole house surge protectors. One search phrase that we constantly looked for was "dishwasher" in a 10 mile radius of Frisco,Tx. We come across gold like this all of time:

This was an actual tweet. Someone was actually having an appliance problem in real time that was nearby for our client! We simply replied letting them know we can help. It doesn't get much better than that for a local business, and we do this for all of our clients.

So now, when someone asks me what we do, I'll just direct them to this post because now I know that "manage social media campaigns for businesses" does not tell the entire story ;)

I hope these tips and strategies help you with your social media efforts. If you're thinking, "when would I have time to do all of this???", check out our social media package and we will do it for you:

Click here: social media management package

Thanks for taking time out of your busy day to read this. Please share with anyone you think it might help.

How Social Media Marketing Is Similar To Fitness

Mario Wilson — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 05:58:56 Z

One of the best analogies to describe social media marketing is to compare it to starting a workout routine. Results will not be achieved on day one. Not even on day two! It takes a great plan, but more importantly, consistently. Please watch this short video to see how social media is similar to fitness: http://youtu.be/BNSaAV8taME

How To Easily Monitor Online Reviews

Mario Wilson — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 04:36:50 Z

Your business is running well, your marketing strategy is in place, and youve got your social media working to let your customers know youre right there when they need you. But theres one other area that can make the difference between a busy workplace and one where you can hear the crickets chirping: online reviews.

Once your potential customer has found you, their next step is often to check your reviews on Yelp!, Google+, Angies List, etc. Good reviews will seal the deal! But a lack of reviews, and a lack of good quality reviews, can still steer that customer to a better-reviewed company!

If you own a business you know how frustrating it can be to ensure that you have good quality reviews waiting for your customers. Often even your best customers dont want to take the time to go to review sites and make accounts and fill out the forms. And who can blame them? Time really is money!

ReviewShepherd is a new company that can take care of this problem for you. ReviewShepherd is specifically focused on helping small businesses obtain real, quality reviews from your existing customers, and placing them where your new customers can find them quickly and easily. They make it easy for your customers to review your service, with no hassle for them and no extra work on your part.

ReviewShepherd will go live soon. In the meantime, check out their website to get a better idea of how they can help keep the crickets out of your business.

How A Seasonal Business Should Use Social Media

Mario Wilson — Wed, 28 Jan 2015 10:32:59 Z

Social media is a valuable tool for small businesses to gain more exposure locally, but what do you do when you own a seasonal business? Do you just stop posting? I would not recommend that. We never want to just show up when we need something. We all have that friend or relative right? Also, building a social media community takes time. Posting today will not equate to business tonight. It's similar to building a relationship in person. The best way to look at it is if you wanted to get in shape for summer, you could not start your workout routine on May 31st. You would need to start 3 to 6 months BEFORE you need the results. There is no "lose 30 pounds in an hour" workout plan. It's the same way with a social media strategy. Here are a few tips on how a seasonal business (CPAs, landscapers, Christmas Light Installers, etc) can stay in front of their audiences during the slower times.

1. Get creative with tips: You may not think that a Christmas light installation company would have much to say in the summertime, but there's always a tip to give and someone to help. Consider this: I don't have any stats on this, but I would imagine 99.9% of people that hire someone to install Christmas lights live in a house (as opposed to an apartment). This means that tips to help around the home would be valuable any time of year. The same is true for a lawn care company. Tips like watering your foundation, how to care for your pipes, or prep your yard for Spring would be valuable info for a lawn care company to share for homeowners during the Winter months.

2. Be Social: When in doubt, get "social"! Post about events going on in the community or share content that your audience can relate to. Ex: A golf course could share local events or even post a photo of someone with a sad face with the caption: "When it's too cold to play golf" in the Winter. Everyone knows that tax season is between January and April 15th. CPA's can really win with social media by letting their personality shine starting on April 16th. Preparers should stay relevant all year long so that when tax season rolls around, business just falls in his lap since they've already built the relationships. Again, consistently give value instead of just showing on January 1st begging for business. It doesn't hurt to use humor and be social either :)

When it's too cold to play golf...

3. Be consistent: Just because your business is seasonal doesn't mean that you don't have valuable information to share year 'round. By posting consistently, business will come your way even in non-peak times. You may think that a ski/snowboard shop would shut their social media down during the summer. This is actually a great opportunity to build their community by following other local businesses and accounts. Also, they could post about sales and specials due to the items being out of season and be the only game in town.

People with great summer bodies did not get that way by cramming crazy workout sessions in at the end of Spring. Being "in shape" on social media takes giving value consistently and then people will already have a relationship with you by the time your business season is in full swing! Are there any other tips that you would give for a seasonal small business? If so, please share in the comments! Thanks!

Tweet Ideas For Small Businesses

Mario Wilson — Thu, 22 Jan 2015 07:26:49 Z

So you've heard that there are several benefits for a small business being active on Twitter, you set up an account, fill out your profile and then...uh oh! What do I post? What do I tweet? Have you been here? It's okay if you have. Most of us have. Let me first start out by saying that if you think that Twitter is all about posting pictures of lunch or alerting everyone of your every move, it may not be the best platform for you. The truth is, Twitter is a valuable tool for a small business and a great way to create awareness and gain exposure. Oh yeah, and it's free! Now that I have your attention, let's dig into what a small business should actually be posting. If you mix it up you and, more importantly, your audience will never get bored with the content. Ready? Here we go:

1. Tips: People LOVE tips. When we help others and give value, we become very attractive and our followers look forward to our tweets. This leads to trust. Also, when you give tips and share your knowledge, you come off as an expert in your field.

2. Pictures: Images are powerful on Twitter. They simply stand out and the use of pictures will get noticed more than just text. I recommend sharing pictures of your products, staff, or service. An example of a service picture would be a landscaping company tweeting out a picture of a finished job.

3. Videos: Twitter is currently working on a feature that will let all accounts upload videos directly into the newsfeed (similar to Facebook), but I have had success in sharing videos from my YouTube channel. Again, these are helpful videos with tips that give value to the end user. These stand out in the newsfeed as well.

4. Quotes: I would not go overboard with quotes as it could lead people to unfollow your account, but they can be useful in helping to get certain points across. Example, if you are in the health and wellness industry, you could share famous health quotes such as, "Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon. -Doug Larson". Mixing in some humor like this helps. :)

5. Questions: When we only talk about ourselves or our business, it can get really old, really quick. I recommend getting your audience involved by asking engaging questions. The key is to make it a little thought provoking, but easy to answer with one or two words. An example for a golf course would be, "What is your favorite club in your bag right now?". Anyone that plays golf, typically has a "go-to" club and the conversation can get interesting since everyone may have a different club choice.

Favorite club when you're on the course?

6. Fill in the blank: This takes the same concept of asking a question, but changing the dynamic by letting our followers complete the sentence. Again, make it easy to complete. We can change the example above from a question to a fill-in-the blank post like this: "When I play golf, the best club in my bag is______________." Posts like this get tons of buzz and engagement.

7. Drive traffic to website: Twitter is a great way to drive traffic to a website. In fact, I will tweet a link to this post as soon as I finalize it. You basically can copy and paste the URL link of any page of your website and post it on Twitter. There are 2 keys to this: 1. Lead in with a great headline that will entice people to actually click the link (not misleading, just something to wet the appetite) 2. Shorten the link so it looks cleaner in the newsfeed (I recommend Bitly or Goo.gl).

Here is an example of a tweet in which I drove traffic directly to one of my blog posts:

I am not sure of a business owner in McKinney,TX that would not click on that link, given the headline. What's cool is once the link is clicked, they are now on my website. If you want more potential customers and clients on your website, do this daily. Just make sure it has some value to the reader. Driving traffic every single time to an offer or sales pitch will not build much trust.

As you can see, Twitter is a little more versatile than just tweeting about our next workout or meal choice. The key is to stay consistent. If you can tweet consistently, you will attract and keep more followers. The more people that trust you and know about your business the more referrals you will receive. If you simply do not have time to spend on Twitter, we can manage it for you. Hope this helps and please share this post with anyone that you feel it may assist as well. Thanks!

Why Videos Should Be Part Of A Small Business Marketing Strategy in 2015

Mario Wilson — Wed, 31 Dec 2014 23:25:04 Z

Every year most businesses take a look at their marketing strategies to see how they are going to attract new customers. By now, most small business owners are seeing the value in having a presence on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, etc. After all, if you are in a public place (even a private place) and look around, everyone is looking down at their phones and tablets. Chiropractors sure will be busy! :) As I've often stated in previous posts, just merely existing on social media is not enough. We must have a plan and great content. Here are 4 reasons why we added videos to our client's marketing plan:

1. Reach on Facebook: The "buzz" lately has been about the decline of reach (people that view or see our posts) on Facebook in 2015. Pages that post inconsistently (just a few times per month), or are constantly selling with promotional posts will definitely be penalized. However, pages that share valuable posts and are "social" will see little change (keep in mind "lower reach" has been a topic for 2 years now). That being said, I have noticed a significant bump in reach by uploading videos straight to Facebook. Check out this report from my page that shows just how much of a boost:

Also, these videos are auto-playing in the newsfeed! The graph alone should be enough to convince you to start creating videos, but let's continue.

2. Active YouTube Channel: Not too long ago, Google came out with the Google My Business tool. This is within your Google Plus account and it includes Google Analytics, insights and YouTube. Now I am not saying that using your YouTube channel will make you #1 in the rankings for your business' keywords, but using Google's tools will give you an advantage over companies that aren't. If you are constantly adding helpful videos to your YouTube channel (that Google provides you for free), you give Google more content to view and index. This makes you more relevant in the search engines and if you have helpful, interesting topics, people will actually watch the videos.

3. Show Us Your Tips: Images are great on social media, but what if we could make those pictures come to life? It's one thing to tell us how to brush our teeth, but what if a dentist made a short video showing us how to do it right? Pretty powerful! Also, some people prefer to watch a quick a video instead of reading tips.

4. Take a tour: Another great idea for videos on social media is filming a tour of your office, facility or even job site. A landscaping company could shoot a quick video showing a new backyard that they created or a pet groomer could take us behind the scenes showing off their "puppy palace". Both would give us a little more insight than just a picture and could help if a potential customer is deciding between a couple of businesses.

5. Let people get to know you and employees: People love to do business with...people. When we bring ourselves and our employees out from behind the desk or counter and let our audiences see and hear them, our followers love it because they get to know them and their personalities. If you start using videos, I recommend spreading it around and putting different employees in front of the camera (unless they do not want to be filmed) so that your potential clients really get to know your staff. This will make your business more likable and trustworthy.

The way in which companies are producing smart phones and tablets, videos are becoming easier and easier to produce for small businesses. Be sure to utilize this resource in your marketing strategy going forward for even more exposure for your business. As always, if you think adding videos would help, but you simply don't have the time to produce them consistently, we can help. Check out our small business solution here: How To Market A Small Business

How To Market A Small Business During The Holidays

Mario Wilson — Wed, 03 Dec 2014 09:14:51 Z

The Holiday season, depending on the industry, can be a busy time for a small business. Several industries can benefit from product sales to services and trades. The key is, for more people in your own backyard to know about your services. During the Holidays, people are willing to buy...a lot. Here are some tips to make sure they buy from you and not your competitors.

1. Write a Helpful Blog Post: Blogging is a great way to connect with your audience and gain their trust by providing tips and value. Try to think of problems that your target audience might have during the Holidays and write a blog post to solve those problems. For example, if you're in the fitness industry, you could write a post about avoiding holiday weight gain. Another could be a catering company sharing helpful tips on hosting holiday parties. Regardless of the industry, think of an issue that comes up this time of year and solve it with a blog post.

2. Make a Video: This is in line with writing a blog post. Some people like to read and some prefer to watch videos. To cater to the visual audience, create a quick YouTube video or videos on how your product or service could be helpful during the Holidays. Ex: a flooring company could shoot a video on transforming your floors from carpet to hardwood just in time for holiday guests. Again, give value and solve problems.

3. Take Pictures: If you've followed my blog for a while then you know I love the power of pictures. If you have seasonal products, take pictures of them and post them on social media. Also, if you have a brick and mortar business that's decorated for the holidays, be sure to share pictures of the office and staff. This will show the real and human side of your business.

4. Update cover photos: If you do have pictures of holiday decor around the office, you can update your cover photos on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus. Also, tools like Picmonkey have ways to add holiday accents to existing cover photos. On Facebook you'll get an added bonus because every time you change your cover photo, it's posted to the newsfeed. More exposure!

5. Run targeted Facebook Ads: Changing up your ads on Facebook is a great way to market during the Holidays (especially if you are running a special on specific products or services). Since you can target specific demographics, you can really make an impact during this time of year. A great example would be a company that installs Christmas lights running ads to homeowners in the area in which they do business.

I recommend having a strong online presence all year long, but these tips above will help your business get a little boost during the Holidays. What are some problems you could solve for your prospective clients and customers during this time of year? Let us know in the comments!

How To Use Social Media For Customer Service

Mario Wilson — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 11:14:18 Z

One of our clients had a potential customer find them on a Google search, but instead of calling them, they sent them a message on Twitter to schedule an appointment. Since our team constantly monitors Twitter, we were able to respond quickly and help the customer. This got me thinking...customer service sure has changed! Years ago, if a customer had a question or problem, they would pick up a landline phone and dial the customer service number (believe it or not, this did actually happen), wait on hold forever, then have a conversation with another person. This evolved to using email as customer service where people could send an email request, then wait 24 to 48 hours for a response. Who has time for this in today's world? :) As a society, we want everything right now. From our food to our answers, the faster the better! Social media is no different. People spend hours on online each day, so instead of picking up the phone, or even opening up an email, more and more people find it easier to send a Facebook message or a tweet to a business because they know they'll (probably) get a quicker response. They expect this. When a customer sends a message to a company and there is not a timely response, it's the equivalent of someone not answering the phone. The only thing worse than not responding to a customer's question or concern is not having a Facebook page or Twitter account for them to reach out to. Here are a few tips to wow your current and potential customers with outstanding customer service through social media.

Be easy to find: When setting up social media accounts, be sure that your profile names are consistent with your business name so that it's easy for customers to find your accounts by searching for them. You may need to get creative with Twitter and Pinterest as there is a character limit, but just do the best you can to make it as close as possible. Also, be sure to include links to your social media profiles on your website so it's clear that you're active on social media.

Answer EVERY response: When someone does find you online and takes the time to send a message, direct tweet or comment, take the time to write them back. Every time, without fail. This type of interaction will lead to creating raving fans. The key is to also respond to negative comments and complaints. I've seen some brands simply delete bad comments as if they didn't exist. This is a mistake because it doesn't solve the problem. It's best to respond and hit the issue head on to resolve it (keep in mind it's best to direct them to a phone number to take the conversation offline). This shows your future and current customers that you are willing to address opportunities and improve your services instead of sweep problems under the rug. Look, we're all human and will make mistakes. The true integrity of businesses comes out when we correct mistakes.

Be prompt: Responding to comments and messages in not enough. We must respond in a timely fashion (our team responds to all client comments within the hour unless it's in the middle of the night). Imagine sending an email to a business and you don't get a response until a week later. Basically that's the equivalent of taking more than a few hours to respond on social media. This must be constantly monitored to give great customer service in the mind of the consumer.

Look for opportunities to help: This kills two birds with one stone; Twitter has a search tool that we use daily, to look for opportunities to help our clients. You would be amazed at what people tweet! When you solve people's problems, you build trust and gain new clients.

Here's an example of a tweet found through a search for "toothache" in a 5 mile radius of McKinney,TX:

How beneficial would it be for a dentist in McKinney to stumble upon this? Business is all about being a problem solver in your area of expertise.

Well, times sure have changed as far as how we market and attract new customers. The way in which customers communicate with us has changed as well. Be sure you are prepared to service your customers via social media. If you need some help, check out our small business solution here and we can manage it for you. Click here----->social media management for small business.

Thanks for reading and here's to creating raving fans with all of our businesses!

What NOT To Do On Social Media

Mario Wilson — Wed, 08 Oct 2014 09:04:36 Z

Social media marketing is all about providing value to our respective audiences. Typically, I am recommending tips on what business owners should do, but in this post I want to go over a few things that could be a turn off without realizing it. Please do not feel bad if you have done any of these. Most of us have done them (I know I have), so let's learn from them and move forward. These are the DON'TS of the social media world.

1. Don't add people to email list without their subscription: Have you ever gone to a networking meeting, meet some great contacts and then get flooded with auto-emails from those same people? This is annoying because it may not be anything we're interested in. At least send an email to invite them to subscribe instead of just adding them without their consent.

2. Don't direct message people with your offer: One of the biggest mistakes that I see people make on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter is going through each of their contacts and sending them a direct message with how great their product or service is and why they need it. Could you imagine a single person trying to get a date this way? Going through their LinkedIn or Facebook contacts sending a message to EVERYONE that they found attractive and letting them know why they should date them? That would be nuts! Well....it's the same when we do that in business. A relationship take time to build. Post valuable content and people (that are actually interested) will approach you.

3. Don't make it all about you: Let's take the dating analogy a step further: Ever heard of the nightmare date where one person just talked about themselves the entire time? Didn't ask any questions or engage the other person. Just went on and on about their lives and blah blah blah blah...That's exactly what audiences are thinking when business pages just post about their services or how great they are every day. Instead, mix up your content with posts that would resinate with them and have a 2 way conversation. Be social. :) Again, could you imagine one of your single Facebook friends posting everyday about how great a catch they are and to call them today?

4. Don't get involved in polarizing topics: There are a lot of hot topics out there right now. Explosive debates on gun control, gay marriage, border control, abortion, religion, etc. My advice is to touch NONE of them on social media if you are a business owner, even on your personal profiles. It can be difficult because we all naturally have opinions on these subjects, but having an argument (or even a sophisticated conversation) on such topics on social media can cost an owner a sale. Keep in mind, this includes liking posts that are polarizing as people can see that information as well. If you wish to debate these topics, I recommend a phone call. If it's online, it exists forever (even if deleted because someone can screen capture an emotional outburst).

These tips are meant to be helpful and not to say that anyone is a bad business owner for doing these things. Again, I learned what should be done by making mistakes (listed above). Omitting these actions will only help a business owner as they build their social media following. Are there any social media "Don'ts "that you have noticed that I did not mention?

6 Actions Businesses Should Take On Twitter Daily

Mario Wilson — Wed, 01 Oct 2014 21:08:17 Z

There is a TON of value when it comes to Twitter for a small business. That being said, simply setting up a Twitter account will not generate much business. "Being on Twitter" and being active on Twitter are two different things. There is a proven strategy to attract followers and new clients/prospects. This strategy is dependent on consistency for it to actually work for a small business, and if done right, can produce monumental results. Ready? Let's go!

1. Tweet: To be heard, we must speak, so tweeting daily is a must. I recommend that a small business tweet a couple of times per day (although each account is different, typically the optimum time to tweet is between 1:00pm and 4:00pm). The key is to tweet things of value such as tips, upcoming events or even something funny. A business should avoid "salesy" tweets and "look at me tweets". Being helpful will attract more people than being desperate. Also on tweets, be sure to use hashtags (#) as it will lead to more exposure. Click here to learn more about hashtags: How to use hashtags

2. Engage followers: Ever have a one-sided "conversation" with someone, and they only talk about themselves and do all of the talking? No fun! The same goes for Twitter. If all you do is talk at people, you won't get very far. Be sure to also go through your feed and have conversations with your followers by retweeting relevant articles, or replying to funny or valuable tweets. Be social :)

3. Share articles in your field: Coming up with our own content is great, but sharing excellent content is just as valuable. Search out articles in your industry and share them with your audience. You'll become a one-stop shop for helpful information. For example, a painting company could share a helpful article on how to pick out paint colors or articles on home improvement.

4. Search for leads: This is, by far, the most productive action we take for our clients. There is a search tool, within Twitter, in which you can look for specific keywords. For example, the painter we mentioned could search for phrases like, "painter", "paint house", or "paint room" within a certain mile radius of their territory. When they spot a possible customer, they can engage them immediately even if they don't follow them. This is a great lead generator and should be done daily.

5. Reply to mentions: Some businesses have the time to tweet, but they don't have the time to monitor their accounts to reply back to mentions (when someone writes directly to the business). This is a huge mistake. Mentions must be replied back to within about an hour or two or the customer may think their comment was ignored. I also recommend showing gratitude to followers for Retweets (RTs) by saying thank you or by retweeting something from that follower.

6. Follow other accounts: One of the best ways to attract more followers (other than tweeting) is to follow people that you would want to have following you. Generally people will "follow back", so that painting company in McKinney could follow users in McKinney in hopes they will follow them back and have a chance to build an online relationship with them. I recommend following a few accounts per day so it's consistent.

Twitter is a valuable resource for a small business because several people can be reached at one time. I recommend daily attention to Twitter to build relationships and have consistent brand exposure. If you agree, but just cannot find the time to take these actions daily, check out our management package and we'll handle it for you:

Social Media Management

Thanks for reading and please share with a business owner that this could help.

5 Reasons Why A Business Should NOT Use Social Media

Mario Wilson — Wed, 17 Sep 2014 09:48:48 Z

As the owner of a social media marketing company, some may think that I believe that every single business under the sun should be active on social media. That simply is not the case. It's not for everyone or for every business. Now, I would argue that MOST businesses could only benefit from more exposure and the majority of a business's audience and potential client base is active on social media. There are some cases where it just doesn't make sense for a business owner to make the leap to social media just because someone told them to. Here are a few:

1. The owner is against it: Have you ever tried to persuade someone to work out or quit smoking or do anything that they did not really want to do? Not only is this frustrating for both parties, but rarely are the desired results achieved. Well, the same goes for social media. If a business owner is not on board, they simply will not put forth the effort (or be willing to invest in a firm to put forth the effort) that is needed to be successful.

Is there ever enough time?

2. Not enough time to post consistently: Leaving a social media page dormant or unattended is similar to leaving a store empty and abandoned. Could you imagine walking into an open store and no one was there to help you because they were too busy? Crazy right? Even worse, what if one day the store is open then the next day it's not? Some think that you can you setup profiles and now you're "on social media". Well, it actually needs to be maintained. Daily. What if a business owner does take the time to post, but doesn't have time to respond to comments and mentions? It could do more harm than help for the business owner that doesn't have time to keep up with the daily duties of social media. When comments go unanswered, it's the same as a phone going unanswered. "Guess they're too busy...", or "I guess they don't care."

3. The product or service isn't very good: Hear me out on this one. There are some businesses out there that focus primarily on volume and care nothing about quality and/or customer service. This type of business would get buried by negative publicity on their social media accounts. Basically social media enhances what a business already is. If you provide an outstanding product or service and more people know about it and talk about it, your business will continue to grow because people will comment on how great your product or service is. Basically, a social media presence alone will not fix a broken business, but it will greatly benefit an excellent one.

Results take time

4. Results are expected immediately: We all know that person that gets a gym membership, goes for a month or two and says, "well that didn't work". Social media marketing is very similar to working out to get in shape. People that just want to "give it a shot" and expect tons of clients and referrals overnight should stay clear of social media. Just like you can't do a few bicep curls and be in the best shape of your life, you cannot post for a few weeks and expect clients to line up right away. Building an online relationship and reputation takes time. Those that want immediate results should keep searching for the magic pill that brings all of the leads ;) P.S, if you find it, let us know!

5. Don't want exposure: Believe it or not, there are people out there that do not want any more business than they already have or simply do not want the exposure. With millions of people using social media on a daily basis (multiple times per day), your business will be seen. If you are a private person or do not want people to know what you do for a living, or you do not want any more exposure for your business, do not use social media. Conversely, if it's important to you and your business for people to know about your company, I couldn't find a better way to get the word out to the masses than through social media.

As always, if you find yourself in category #2, we are here to help. We manage social media campaigns for our clients so they can do what they do best: Provide a great service or product for their customers! Please share with someone that's on the fence about social media.

How Restaurants Can Use Social Media To Grow Their Business

Mario Wilson — Sat, 30 Aug 2014 09:50:21 Z

Have you ever scrolled through your feed on social media to find pictures of food or your friends "checking in" to their favorite restaurant? Imagine if that was your restaurant or your dish? How great would this exposure be with just the click of a button? The majority of people want their friends and family to know what they are up to at all times (based on behavior). Social media makes this very easy with just a few clicks on a smart phone or tablet. Let's go through some ways that a restaurant can capitalize on this behavior and get more customers in the door. Hungry for those tips? Sorry couldn't resist. Okay, let's go!

1. Facebook check in: Restaurants should encourage their diners to check-in on Facebook. They can put signs at the front or have a subtle reminder in the menu. Keep in mind that most people will do this anyway. It's become natural behavior. If a restaurant doesn't have a Facebook page, diners can't check in. The value of this action is that all of the diner's friends and family are now exposed to the restaurant! Imagine if a diner checks in and has 800-1,000 friends. Mass exposure!

Checking in on Facebook

2. Show The Food: Posting a picture of a mouth-watering meal just before lunch or dinner will entice a few people that had not made up their mind on their dining destination to come on in and give a new restaurant a try (or can serve as a reminder to an old favorite). Smart phones have such great cameras now that this can be done rather quickly. Prepare the dish, snap the pic, upload and viola!

3. Search Twitter: Twitter is an amazing tool, but it's not just for posting content. You can also use it to search for conversations and gracefully join in. Example: If you owned a Mexican food restaurant, you could search for terms like, "I am so hungry" or, "Tex-Mex", or "Mexican food" in a 10 to 15 mile radius of your location. Imagine someone tweeting, "I really want some Tex-Mex for lunch". You could write back saying, "We understand! Come on in, we have some great specials today!" or something to that effect.

4. Announce specials and other events: There is no quicker way (in my humble opinion, of course) to get the word out about ANYTHING than through social media. What's great about running a restaurant is that you can change things on the fly. For instance, if you need a little bump in dinner sales you can run a special and post it to all of your networks and let all of your followers know at once. Just make sure you're well staffed! ;) Restaurants can also use their social media pages to broadcast events, new menus or special hours.

5. Pin recipes: If you followed my blog for a while, then you know I am all about leading with value. This means to feed the "what's in it for me?" mentality (which is just human nature). A restaurant can give value by sharing recipes, nutrition tips and dinner ideas on their Pinterest pages. Obviously they would not be giving away the secret sauce, but some basic helpful ideas would not hurt. Value leads to trust and trust leads to more business.

6. Show pics of restaurant, staff and kitchen: Nothing gives more insight and shows a business off like pictures of their facility and staff. A restaurant is no different. Show off that dining room, show the friendly staff eager to serve, and for extra credit, go "behind the scenes" and get some pics of the kitchen and some preparation of meals in progress. This shows future guests that your kitchen is so clean and efficient that you're willing to expose it to the world! Make it fun and make it social!

Word of mouth marketing is huge in the restaurant business and social media is a great tool to use to get more mouths talking about a dining establishment. I hope these tips help and please share this with a restaurant owner that you know that could use some more business. As always, if they can't keep up with a busy lunch rush and their social media, we'd be happy to assist!

How To Drive Traffic To Your Website With Social Media

Mario Wilson — Wed, 20 Aug 2014 07:35:37 Z

We've all heard the question, if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it...you can probably finish that sentence. Well, if we have a great website, but no one visits, does it exist? It may, but it's not doing much good. Social media is great for interacting with, engaging with, and sharing helpful information with our target audiences. What a lot of business owners do not realize is that it's also great for driving traffic to their websites. After all, chances are you are on my website right now as a result of clicking on a link from one of my social media profiles (unless you're one of my email subscribers. Thank you by the way). In a perfect world, people would just type in a keyword phrase into a search engine like Google, and we would be the 1st option on page 1 and we would get tons of traffic that way. Let's face it...not everyone can be on page 1. So do we just give up on getting people to our websites? Nope! Here are some tips to get them there via social media.

1. Fill out profiles: Most social media profiles have a spot for our website URLs. Be sure to complete all profiles completely. Sometimes as people are clicking through our pages, they come across our websites and we get a bonus visit.

2. Link directly to your site from your profiles: Here is a real example of how I drive traffic to my website via Twitter. Basically, I have a headline leading to a blog post (if you don't have an active blog, you can guide them to a certain page on your website. Here is the tweet:

Want people to comment on your posts? Try these 4 things: http://t.co/oUiepPveZV #mckinney pic.twitter.com/lJWd7zUz2g
Market With Mario (@Marketwithmario) July 31, 2014

The key is to shorten the link. This makes it look cleaner. Tip: Use a tool like goo.gl or bitly as those are the most trustworthy for people to click on. Once someone clicks the link, they're on our website! Boom! This is how it looks on Facebook:

This is how it looks on Google Plus:

3. YouTube Description and Video: Here's a neat little trick. When creating a YouTube video, add your URL to the beginning of your video description (pictured with the arrow). This is a clickable link and people will get curious and click, I promise.

You can also add text to your video and have a call to action to have people visit your website. Just be sure to give a selfish reason such as, "visit our website for tips on..."

4. Pinterest: Pinterest is an amazing tool to use to drive traffic directly to your website (especially if you have pictures of products or projects on your site). This is what it looks like as a pin:

Now here's what's cool: Once someone clicks on this pin while on Pinterest, it will take them directly to our website! Edit your pin and check its website source to be sure your URL is included (you can also direct them to a certain page of your site). Here's what I mean:

5. Include on business cards and email signature: When designing business cards and creating email signatures, be sure to include your website (you'd be surprised how many times this is overlooked). Most people today will check us out before calling for a quote or even before a coffee meeting.

Search Engine Optimization is an important tool in marketing, but businesses that do not have the budget to outrank their competition (clean, effective SEO is not cheap), on Google then these tips above will help accomplish the goal of getting potential buyers and clients to your websites. Please feel free to leave a comment and share with a friend that this may help. Thanks!